in the United States in Fifty Years. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE PAST NATURAL INCREASE OF THE POPULATION, WHITE AND 

 COLOURED. 



Let us now direct our inquiries to the natural increase of our 

 numbers, independent of all accessions from abroad. No fact dis- 

 closed by the census is of equal importance to this in the eyes of 

 Ihe statesman and political economist; since, in an underpeopled 

 country like the United States, such increase is the surest index of 

 the nation's present abundance and comfort, as well as of its future 

 strength and resources. 



I. The natural increase of the white population. 



If we deduct, from the whole increase of this class at each cen- 

 sus, the number gained by immigration beyond the number of our 

 own emigrants, the result would of course give us the precise 

 amount of increase from natural multiplication. The following 

 statement shows the result of such deduction, according to the esti- 

 mates of immigration made in the preceding chapter : 

 From 1790 to 1800, the increase of the whites was 35.7 per cent. 



Deduct the number immigrating, 58,000, equal to 1.8 " 



■ 33.9 per c't. 



From 1800 to 1810, the increase was . . 36.2 



Deduct, 1. The whites acquired with Lou- 

 isiana, 51,000,* equal to . . 1.2 

 2. The number immigrating, equal to 1.9 



33.1 " ' 



* I have ventured to put down the whole number of whites returned in 1810 for Lou- 

 isiana and Missouri, (then called the territories of New Orleans and Louisiana,) as an 

 accession to the population since 1800, though doubtless a part of them had migrated 

 from other States. No deduction was made on this account, partly because other citi- 

 zens were acquired by the purchase, who were not comprehended in the returns for 

 those territories, and partly because the estimate of the immigration between 1800 and 



8* 



